National Library News March/April 1999 Vol. 31, no. 3-4

The National Library and the U.S. Program for Cooperative Cataloguing

The National Library of Canada catalogues titles of Canadian origin or interest for Canadiana, The National Bibliography, and makes bibliographic and authority records available in MARC 21 format through a variety of distribution means. However, as many Canadian library collections are broad in scope and include publications from many nations, the National Library also plays a role in supporting Canadian libraries in obtaining bibliographic records for titles produced in other countries. To help fulfill this need, the National Library has participated in the development of the U.S. Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) since its inception in 1994. The National Library has also participated in the CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials Program) program for over a quarter of a century (since its founding in 1973), and, when CONSER joined the PCC in October 1997, the National Library’s involvement with the PCC was further consolidated.

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging is a U.S. program of cooperation among several hundred libraries, coordinated by the Library of Congress (LC), to create and update cataloguing records jointly. Its aim is "expanding access to library collections by providing useful, timely, and cost-effective cataloguing that meets mutually-accepted standards of libraries around the world." (PCC Web homepage: <lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/pcc.html>). Its goals are to:

• Cooperatively enhance the timely availability of bibliographic and authority records by cataloguing more items, producing cataloguing that is widely available for sharing and use by others, and performing cataloguing in a more cost-effective manner.
• Develop and maintain mutually acceptable standards for records.
• Promote the values of timely access and cost-effectiveness in cataloguing, and expand the pool of cataloguers who catalogue using the mutually accepted standards.
• Increase the sharing and use of foreign bibliographic and authority records.
• Provide for ongoing discussion, planning and operations among participants in order to further the program's mission.

Although the PCC began in 1994, some of its components date back more than 20 years under different names. It now comprises:

• NACO (Name Authority Cooperative program), which began in 1977.
• SACO (Subject Authority Cooperative program), which evolved from the Cooperative Subject Cataloging Project begun in 1983.
• BIBCO (Bibliographic Cooperative Program for the contribution of monograph records to a central database), which evolved in 1995 from the National Coordinated Cataloging Program begun in 1988.
• CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials Program, involving the contribution and updating of bibliographic records for serials to a central database), which began in 1973 and became a component of the PCC in 1997.

The PCC has become an important player in the field of bibliographic standards, originating and developing the concept of a "core" level record. Through CONSER, it contributes to the AACR revision process.

The National Library serves as a permanent member of the PCC Policy Committee and participates in the following PCC programs:

NLC became a contributing PCC library in 1997 when CONSER joined the PCC program. The Library’s role in CONSER is to contribute bibliographic records for Canadian serials to the CONSER database on OCLC. Over the past 25 years, it has contributed about 60 000 records.

While NLC is not a NACO member, a formal NLC/LC Names Agreement for Canadian names has operated since 1975. Under this agreement, Canadian corporate names, as established by NLC and published in Canadiana Authorities, are used by LC and NACO libraries in the course of their cataloguing. This ensures a high degree of consistency in Canadian name headings used in North American libraries. It is hoped that this consistency can be enhanced through closer ties with the NACO program.

NLC has proposed new subject headings to the Library of Congress Subject Headings list under the SACO program since 1994, contributing 180 subject headings since that time.

NLC is not a formal BIBCO member. However, NLC’s monographic records are sent to LC, which redistributes them to U.S. and other subscribers via its Cataloging Distribution Service.

Through its participation in the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, the National Library of Canada seeks to bring a Canadian and international perspective to the development of PCC programs for the sharing of standardized bibliographic data.

For more information, contact:

Liz McKeen
Director, Bibliographic Access
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services
National Library of Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N4
Telephone: (819) 994-6879
Fax: (819) 953-0291
E-mail: bibliographic.access@nlc-bnc.ca